- Through a statement on January 28, 2025, the WHO says the funding halt can put people living with HIV at immediate increased risk of illness and death and undermine efforts to prevent transmission in communities and countries.
The World Health Organization has expressed concern over the implications of immediate funding pause for HIV/AIDS programmes in low and middle income countries. This follows US President Donald Trump’s executive order to pause all United States foreign development assistance
“These programmes provide access to life saving HIV therapy to more than 30 million people worldwide.
Through a statement on January 28, 2025, the WHO says the funding halt can put people living with HIV at immediate increased risk of illness and death and undermine efforts to prevent transmission in communities and countries.
“Such measures, if prolonged, could lead to rises in new infections and deaths, reversing decades of progress and potentially taking the world back to the 1980s and 1990s when millions died of HIV every year globally, including many in the United States of America, “ WHO says.
According to the WHO, for the global community, this could result in significant setbacks to progress in partnerships and investments in scientific advances that have been the cornerstone of good public health programming , including innovative diagnostics, affordable medicines, and community delivery models of HIV care.
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“We call on the Government of the United States of America to enable additional exemptions to ensure the delivery of life saving HIV treatment and care,” the WHO added.
Since its establishment over 20 years ago by President George W. Bush, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been a global initiative of the HIV response.
The initiative works in over 50 countries around the world, and has been providing HIV treatment for more than 20 million people living with HIV/AIDS.
